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I am apparently a glutton for punishment because I decided to join an online spring cleaning challenge this week. And in addition to being a glutton, I’m apparently also a sucker because I picked my laundry room as the space I was going to tackle.

If you’ve been following LROL for awhile, you may remember our big plans for the laundry room. In our quest for a more organized house, we will be busting out the back wall and expanding the space (there’s currently a garage closet on the other side). I’m excited about this renovation project because it will eventually mean a designated sewing/craft/blogging/command central room just for me. Yay! But I’m also realistic. As I look around at all the projects that need to get done around here before we can go to work on the laundry room, I’m thinking it will be a few months until we can get started on that space. In the meantime, this is what the room looked like before the spring cleaning challenge: (Warning: The following photos are not intended for viewing by “cleanies.”)

Needless to say, it was time to do some serious cleaning and organizing. I wanted to style the room so I could at least keep the door open when company is at our house. But I also faced the challenge of how to decorate it because I couldn’t spend any money, since it is getting a complete overhaul in the future. So I “shopped the house” for decorating ideas that would make the space more functional and pretty for now. Here’s how it ended up:

The room was in such sad shape, I actually had to patch and touch up the walls and trim in addition to giving the entire room a good scrub.

I switched out the former set of coat hooks for a beefier one that holds more. Plus I cleaned and packed away all the winter coats that were clogging up the room. Now I have open hooks where we can hang our library book tote bag and Tiny’s school backpack.

I grabbed some artwork from around the house. The “P” came from the dining room, the beach prints were already in the laundry room, and the butterflies were collecting dust in the basement. Note: These butterfly collections are the real deal! As a hobby, my aunt and uncle travel around the world catching and documenting butterflies and moths. They often give away some of their work at our annual family reunions. That’s where we were able to score the two pieces above.

I threw together a few more decorations for the top of the cabinet.

This basket from Target is one of my favorite storage pieces. I would honestly love to have about five more of these in my home. This one always gets put to good use. The rug was originally in the garage. I purchased it about a year ago from my all-time-favorite discount store: Gabriel Brothers.

I brought out this handmade wooden bowl to keep my laundry detergent pods handy near the washing machine. The Target basket and the handmade bowl are both easy and practical home organizing ideas that have simplified my laundry routine immensely.

So there you have it. I kicked off my spring cleaning with one of the scariest rooms in our house.

Look out, garage, I’m coming for you!

Have you started your spring cleaning yet? What is the biggest challenge you face this year?

Anyone who knows me would probably agree that I am a bit of an “all-or-nothing,” “go-big-or-go-home” kind of person. I suffer from what I like to call “perfection paralysis” (otherwise known as “If I can’t do it perfectly, I won’t do it at all” syndrome). Needless to say, this philosophy has not always served me well.

Recently, I had the privilege of meeting one of my favorite authors, Jon Acuff, at Blissdom. One of his mantras is, “Ninety percent perfect and shared with the world is better than 100 percent perfect and stuck in your head.” How true!

There have been many projects, ideas, conversations, charitable contributions, etc. that I have left undone or unshared because, well, I didn’t have the time, money, resources, help, energy, whatever, to do them perfectly. Well, no more, people! I have designated May as my “now, not later” month and I am determined to accomplish and share more with y’all, regardless of whether my ventures will meet Martha Stewart’s approval. (No offense, Martha; I love your work!) 🙂

So let’s get started “now, not later,” shall we?

For more than a year, our laundry room has looked like this:

Gorgeous, huh? Well, I never did much with it because our plans are to bust out the back wall (which opens into a garage closet) and expand the space to create a laundry/craft room that will eventually look something like this:

OK. Maybe not exactly like that, but you get the idea. In the meantime, while I’ve been dreaming of a spectacular laundry/craft space, our family has been wading through clothes and junk every day (I recently found a Christmas present in the heap) to use the washer and dryer. Not cool. So instead of waiting for the day I can create the PERFECT room, I decided to make the laundry room I’ve got right now look as good as possible.

First I cleaned up the crap and the hubster hung a cabinet that had been sitting on our garage floor for-eva. I also hung some art I found in the basement.

Then I organized all my laundry supplies and placed them neatly in the cabinet.

I was even able to use a Pier One Imports basket I got for $1 at a yard sale as a clothespin holder.

Here’s the room now:

Before:

After:

Do you suffer from “perfection paralysis?” Is there something you can do now to improve your situation (even if it won’t make things PERFECT)? I’d love for you to share your ideas.

Philippians 3:12-15 – Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things …

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